diff --git a/src/changes/changes.xml b/src/changes/changes.xml
index db57c380d..2b1ca0b93 100644
--- a/src/changes/changes.xml
+++ b/src/changes/changes.xml
@@ -264,6 +264,9 @@
     <action type="update" dev="kinow" due-to="Dependabot">
       Bump easymock from 4.2 to 4.3 #226.
     </action>
+    <action type="fix" dev="kinow" due-to="Jin Xu">
+      Fix checkstyle syntax (was scope, is now accessModifiers) via PR #235.
+    </action>
   </release>
   <release version="4.4" date="2019-07-05" description="Maintenance release.">
     <action issue="COLLECTIONS-710" dev="ggregory" type="fix" due-to="Yu Shi, Gary Gregory">
diff --git a/src/conf/checkstyle.xml b/src/conf/checkstyle.xml
index 4deb8256d..0b79c22dc 100644
--- a/src/conf/checkstyle.xml
+++ b/src/conf/checkstyle.xml
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ limitations under the License.
     <module name="UnusedImports"/>
     <module name="NeedBraces"/>
     <module name="JavadocMethod">
-      <property name="scope" value="protected" />
+      <property name="accessModifiers" value="protected" />
     </module>
     <module name="ModifierOrder"/>
     <module name="RedundantModifier"/>